Abstract
Purpose: :
To determine the response of the fellow eye to intravitreal ranibizumab (Lucentis, Genentech) injection in the treatment of neovascular Age-related macular degeneration (ARMD)
Methods: :
All patients who received intravitreal ranibizumab injections for ARMD from July 1, 2007 to the present were identified. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) scans were evaluated and patients with subretinal or intraretinal fluid in both eyes were included in the study. All patients with sub- or intraretinal fluid in just one eye, the injected eye, were excluded. All patients who have not yet returned for the first post-injection follow-up visit were excluded. In total, 20 patients were identified from July 1, 2007 through October 20, 2007. The visual acuity and Central Foveal Thickness (CFT), as measured on OCT, were noted in both eyes on the day of injection (prior to the injection) and again on the first follow-up visit.
Results: :
Twenty eyes of 20 patients were identified. There were 8 males and 12 females. The right eye was injected in 13 patients; the left eye was injected in 7. The pre-injection visual acuity (VA) ranged from 20/30 to 20/400 in the injected eye and 20/30 to finger counting in the fellow eye. The average number of ranibizumab injections prior to the current injection was 2.5 in the injected eye and 0.8 in the fellow eye. The average CFT as measured by OCT was 361.7 microns (range: 230-588) in the injected eye and 309.3 (range: 183-509). The post-injection follow-up examination and OCT occurred at a mean of 35.2 days. At the follow-up visit, the average CFT was 250.9 microns (range: 147-507) in the injected eye and 293.9 microns (range: 160-476) in the fellow eye representing an average reduction of 110.9 microns in the injected and 15.5 microns in the fellow eye. One patient showed a significant increase in fluid in the fellow eye; if this outlying patient is removed from the analysis, there was an average of 23.2 micron reduction in fluid in the fellow eye which corresponds to a 19% reduction in excess fluid.
Conclusions: :
There appears to be a slight reduction in sub- and intraretinal fluid in the fellow eye in response to intravitreal ranibizumab injection
Keywords: age-related macular degeneration • retina